Archive for Jun 28, 2013

We heard yesterday of rumors that Google is preparing a host of new devices, including their own Android-powered game console, smartwatch, and a refreshed media streaming device, similar to the Nexus Q. One of the more interesting tidbits, however, is that these devices could be running the next version of Android: Key Lime Pie, which could tell us a lot about Google's plans to expand the Google's own Android UI past smartphones and tablets.

The Google Street View Trekker backpack is at it again, and this time it visited the abandoned Hashima Island, or more well-known as "Dead Island" or "Dead City" from the most recent James Bond film Skyfall. In the movie, the island serves as the cyberterrorists headquarters, but it's actually a real place and now we get to experience it for ourselves.

Google has just recently begun rolling out Google Editions of a couple of new handsets, like the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S 4. However, could there be more devices on the way? We've been hearing a few ramblings about a possible Nexus-ified Huawei device recently, but nothing has been confirmed just yet. Most recently, it's said that Huawei and Google are partnering up to make an Ascend P6 Google Edition.

Microsoft and Time Warner Cable have inked a new deal that will see subscribers to Xbox LIVE get access to up to 300 live TV channels on their Xbox 360, though only if they also subscribe to the cable company. The agreement, Microsoft confirmed, will bring channels like CNN, Comedy Central, and BBC World News to the console, all with voice control using Kinect.

The BlackBerry PlayBook will not get upgraded to BlackBerry 10, Thorsten Heins has admitted, describing the experience of the tablet running the latest OS as not satisfactory. Speaking on BlackBerry's financial results call today, the CEO confessed that after internal testing of BlackBerry 10 on the 7-inch tablet, the decision was made not to offer owners an official update.

BlackBerry aims to have no more than six different products on the market at any one time, CEO Thorsten Heins has said, potentially limiting BlackBerry 10's roll-out as it tries to keep enterprise users of the older OS content. Speaking on BlackBerry's financial results call, after announcing an $84m loss in the most recent quarter, Heins described the new platform as being "still in the early stages of transition"; BlackBerry sold 6.8m devices overall in financial year Q1 2014, though did not break that figure down into BlackBerry 7 versus BlackBerry 10 models. The company has at least one more BlackBerry 7 device in the pipeline for this year.

Android 4.3 has been caught in the wild and already released as an early build, after being spotted running on a Samsung Galaxy S 4 Google Edition. The upcoming OS, still yet to be officially confirmed by Google itself but here still called Jelly Bean, has leaked to SamMobile, where it's described as "fully functional" without "a single thing that isn't working".

Artificially inseminated babies created from the genes of three people could be a reality as early as 2014, with the UK the first to approve so-called mitochondria replacement to prevent inheritable diseases. The controversial procedure involves transferring the genetic material from two parents into an egg from another woman; by removing the donor egg's nucleus, and replacing it with the parents' nucleus, the risk of inherited defects that could have otherwise been passed down to the baby is removed. However, the fact that the child will have DNA from three parents, not two - albeit only around 0.1-percent from the woman who donated the egg - has some genetic modification opponents angry, given IVF embryos are destroyed in the process.

BlackBerry saw smartphone sales rise in the most recent quarter, financial year Q1 2014, but failed to make a profit, with losses of $84m ramping up the pressure on CEO Thorsten Heins to turn around the firm. The Canadian company's latest results show revenues rose - year-on-year - for the three month period, now up to $3.1bn compared to $2.8bn in 2012 - with sales overall of 6.8m Blackberry handsets, though it has not yet detailed what proportion of those ran BlackBerry 10.

Terminator is the next sci-fi classic to get a reboot, with news that the 1984 movie will return as part one of a new trilogy in 2015, with rumors that Arnold Schwarzenegger will star. The new three-parter is the handiwork of Paramount Pictures, Skydance, and Annapurna Pictures, and though there's no indication of who might direct the first movie, there's already a pair of high-profile writers attached to take on the screenplay.